Friday, 17 February 2017

happy end of the week to you! it's been quite the week in my world, but overwhelmingly a good one. i released tart on tuesday, which marks the start of a new collection that i'll be releasing over 2017. tiptoe will be a collection of 7 sock patterns, all using woolen boon's classic boon sock base. i'm totally in love with sonya's speckles, and can't wait to share these patterns with you over the course of the year!

october - the best kind of texture in the appropriate fall-ish dirty chai

december - two different simple basics in buffy and lovey

you'll be able to get the patterns individually or as a set at a reduced rate soon. in the meantime, i'm running a buy-one-get-one sale through the long weekend! use the code LOVELOVELOVE to grab any of my patterns and e-books until 11:59pm cst on february 20th.

i'm coordinating a group collection for this year's festival, which included last month's shawl design 101 and includes master classes this month in pattern writing, publication, social media, and photography at wolseley wool (if you're unable to attend these classes in-person, my online course will launch in the spring). i've been so busy planning the overall collection that i totally forgot to figure out my own contribution to the collection! my partner got me back to my spinning wheel last week though, and that got the wheels in my head turning (terrible pun, yes, i know).

over a couple of days, i got my art batt from fellow manitoba fibre artist tog & thel spun into 661 yards of fingering-ish weight single ply. it's a beautiful batt of cormo, lopi, merino, tencel, mohair, polworth, and angelina, and the resulting yarn is beautifully tweedy and fun in all its neutral glory. i'm pairing it with some other icelandic single ply that i also got from tog & thel that was dyed with logwood, and i'll be making a (what else) big shawl.

i can't wait to see what other folks are going to contribute! a rough timeline of the collection is:

february - master classes

march - submissions from designers and pairing with yarn dyers and spinners

march-may - knitting designs

late may - collection photo shoot

june - tech editing

july - test knitting

early august - ravelry release of full collection

august-september 15 - collection kal!

if you're interested in being involved in any aspect(s) of the collection, please let me know! we're soliciting folks primarily from manitoba, but also saskatchewan, western ontario, and alberta (basically, if you have come or will be coming to fibre fest, please give us a shout). all enquiries and submissions can be sent to me at ash.sunflowerknit@gmail.com. hope you can join us!